Not Your Mother's Love Stories

pro musika

that ‘hawks post i’d been bandying about? i think i’ll wait until they lose to the saints this saturday. because right now i’d probably just go on about how darn attractive charlie whitehurst is.

instead, i’ll treat you to a peek inside my mp3 player. here’s some of what’s been on repeat the last little while:

image courtesty johnlegend.com

wake up! john legend and the roots – i don’t particularly care for legend’s voice, but it suits this album perfectly. it’s old skool soul/r & b, and the roots, even though they aren’t rapping along with him, are an excellent match for his vocal style. stand out track: “hard times”

fields junip – junip is the band that jose gonzalez was in before he became all famous by himself. it’s a fuller sound, with percussion and keys (no bass!) but still very chill, much like gonzalez solo albums. the disc is actually the full length album fields, plus the rope and summit ep and the black refuge ep. stand out tracks: “rope and summit” and their cover of “the ghost of tom joad”.

philadelphonic g love and special sauce – i was pretty surprised to find out my sister, who lives in the philadelphia area, had never heard of g love.

image courtesy philadelphonic.com

great fun music, it reminds me of warm sunny days. philadelphonic is one of his best albums. stand out tracks: “rodeo clowns” and “kick drum”.

surrender! super deluxe – released several years after super deluxe released their 2nd album, via satelite, it sounds like, well, super deluxe. poppy, upbeat, with twisty lyrics, lots of fun to listen to and sing along with in the car. stand out track: “come down”.

adrift in the cosmos slender means – you’ve probably never heard of these guys, and that’s just too bad. their musical progress is evident in these new songs, starting with “all in all” and ending with “this is love”. their first album, neon and ruin, was pretty good. this one is much, much better. stand out tracks: “all in all” and “bartender”.

“bad” and “stay” u2 – i’m always listening to something by u2 (they are, after all, my favorite band). lately i’ve been gravitating toward the unforgettable fire and zooropa, two radically different albums. with “bad” you get the first glimpse of that anthemic soaring rock that they’ve perfected. “stay” soars in places, but in a lot of ways it reminds me of radiohead’s “talk show host”: it doesn’t sound like anything they’ve done before, and yet it does. just listen to it, you’ll know what i’m talking about then.